Dulled White
by CandyAndYaoi
Summary: You never told me that it was you all this time. I mean I understand you just wanted to keep it secret, but is it that hard for you to admit you loved me? Is it difficult for you Sasuke? Or maybe I should never had written back to you. Then we wouldn't be in this mess. I'm sorry. But I love you, isn't that enough?
1. Chapter 1: Go Away

A/N: An introductory for something in my head, I wanna see how this is going, just wanted to start something new. Please leave a review! :D

**DID YOU SEE THE END OF NARUTO?! WTFWTF**

**I'M IN TEARS I CAN'T.**

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><p>"You should take a break from stalking him, you know."<p>

Suigetsu nonchalantly suggested, leaning on the wall to his right, with a document tucked neatly under his armpit, holding a latte to sip. He made sure to make a vulgar slurp, keeping his eyes on the diligently working clickety-clack of keyboard buttons stopped, the silence speaking louder than words.

Sasuke closed his eyes tightly, ceased his nimble fingers from typing his reply to his anonymous friend. Why anonymous? Sasuke was...  
>In the nicest way possible, an antisocial, scumbag. Which is partly why he was annoyed with Suigetsu for interrupting him, but it does much deeper than that. Irritation did not build so quickly inside Sasuke if it was was just Suigetsu bothering him, it was more his company that abraded his patience.<p>

Sasuke just hated people. Simple as that.

To a certain extent, it wasn't Sasuke's fault that the passing by people he had encountered throughout his life were dishonest and vain. High school especially, was the worst time for this.

Gossip, peer pressure, backstabbing, lies, and reputations were the foundation of high school life, it didn't interest Sasuke very much; he just didn't want to have anything to do with them or their mental games.

It was too troublesome to care for that, which oddly made him sound like Shikamaru almost.

How his anonymous friend was involved was because of Sasuke's guidance councilor. Kakashi, who was both Sasuke's teacher and adoptive father, sent him down to guidance to fix his anti-social attitude. Unwillingly, he was forced to write to an anonymous pen pal. He fucking hated the idea.

He even made sure to say "Fuck." when he rejected the idea.

Don't get him wrong, it took over a month to convince Sasuke to attempt writing a letter to some random student that could have been some creepy old man. The school assured the program that offered pen pals was tight in security, but Sasuke didn't put much faith in anyone who wasn't him.

But Sasuke was not impossible to pressure. Kakashi made damn sure Sasuke would say yes by asking Itachi Uchiha to give a hand. To save the details, his older brother had played hundreds of mind games with Sasuke until finally, the brunette gave in.

The beginning letters from him were downright rude and short. Straight to the point.

His thoughts on writing letters were that they were cliche and a huge giveaway for low self-esteem. What surprised him, was that the reply was filled with angry swears, shattering his initial opinion of letters.

In fact, the letter itself was about 27 pages long, filled with creative cusses and insults, it even made the ice-prince smile.

The one responsible for making him smile was Naruto. Last names were kept secret, it was an unspoken rule.

Eventually, both began to warm up to each other, and before it was even foreseeable, they had grown close despite never meeting each other. Both had difficulty making friends, Sasuke willingly avoided friends, his friend...

Was ostracized in his school, which was the reason why Naruto wanted to write a letter to someone who would give him a chance.

The reasons why Sasuke hated being around others, they were all too self-interested, too shallow when it came to friends and each other. All far too untrustworthy. Naruto was Sasuke's best friend, even in the adult world, away from the social lives of school.

The letters were important to Sasuke, because overtime, Sasuke had grown to develop uncomfortable feelings. He went through a period of angst days, weeks, until finally he forced himself to come to terms with his odd fluttering feeling in his chest when he thought or read letters from Naruto. He ignored it. At least he tried, when he began to want to meet his faceless friend. Sasuke Uchiha wanted to meet someone.  
>He wanted to socialize. Itachi, followed his duty of being observant and patience, confronted Sasuke about it. Denial was the defense mechanism that switched on when Itachi asked: "Perhaps you've become close?"<p>

To any other person, the question seemed harmless. However, Sasuke was not just anyone, and neither was Itachi, so normal rules did not apply to either of them. Eventually, Sasuke sat down, pondered days on end of his feelings, soon to realize; He was fucking in love.

It wasn't some misinterpreted reading of emotions, Sasuke had begun to feel these emotions three years into writing the letters, an additional year to realize he was in love, fresh out of university.  
>But he refused to ever tell a word of this when asked if he was interested in someone.<p>

Suigetsu however was a colleague from university and had found out about the letters when they were dorm mates. Sasuke was beyond furious.

Seeing the soft secret of Sasuke's Suigetsu thought Sasuke was a little human, and followed Sasuke everywhere, his brother wasn't any help either. In fact, Itachi invited Suigetsu to be part of their company because he wanted Sasuke to at least have someone resembling a 'friend'.

Thus is the reason why Suigetsu gets away with teasing and annoying Sasuke, Suigetsu had the power to tell anyone about Sasuke's pen pal, and Sasuke liked the idea of a secret friend through letter, it made it seem like the letters were his and only his, that no one could invade their relationship.

Sasuke was known as a heartless working machine in the office, always in meetings, and working, but not to Suigetsu nor his brother. Because they knew of the letters, Sasuke wanted to keep a certain reputation, that he was hardened on the outside and inside.

Due to transfers and meetings around the country, they both switched to email to make it easier. They never thought of phone nor skype because they both didn't want to destroy the charm of their relationship, they didn't want to screw anything up by meeting each other now. It was a bit intimidating when they thought of the possibility.

To Sasuke's displeasure, Naruto apparently discovered plentiful of friends at university. That didn't mean Sasuke was alone , he had 'friends' which were people Sasuke simply found tolerable enough. Such as Gaara, Shikamaru, Neji, Juugo, and sometimes Suigetsu.

At the present moment, Sugetsu was fucking pissing him off.

Holding his breath to bundle his built up frustrations, he exhaled heavily, feeling elevated of the irritation he kept inside. Soot eyes looked up to Suigetsu with a heavy glare.

Suigetsu finished his late and aimed for the trashcan four feet away.

He missed, still tasting the milky coffee reside on the middle of his tongue, a bit too watery for his liking though.  
>"Suigetsu, did you need anything?" Asked Sasuke, harshly accusing him wordlessly with his biting tone. "You can't simply walk in and waste my time working."<p>

The annoying man smiled a toothy grin, his teeth naturally pointer than average.

"Well I came by cause Mr Sabaku called, something about...uh..." Suigetsu suddenly shifted his weight back on his feet, no longer leaning on the wall, looking through papers in the document he had, his eyes furrowed in concentration.

Sasuke was not pleased when time was wasted, especially when he was replying to Naruto.

"Suigetsu." His voice dropped, heavy, and angry, but still calm. Eyes narrowed angrily like a predator.

"Ah! Right!" Suigetsu jumped up slightly, an immature habit of celebration. Suigetsu faced Sasuke once more.

"Mr. Sabaku, otherwise known as Gaara, has faxed some valuable info. He had finally been able to strike a compromise with Minato Namikaze, we have his company supporting our latest project."

Settling himself nicely, he sat up to face Suigetsu, his eyes serious and chin tilted slightly up.

"And? Who will be arriving as a representative? I doubt Minato would have enough time to come down here since he's sending someone here. Gaara does realize I won't accept a representative that can't qualify for our project?"

"Of course, it's someone better!"

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, lifting a leg to rest on his left one, sitting back, doubting Suigetsu's words.

Sasuke grew impatient. "Who is it." he demanded.

Suigetsu grinned wider, as if he had a funny joke to tell.

"Well... His full name is Uzumaki, Na-"

"First names are unnecessary during business, if he's worth anything I will ask for his name, if not, I'll fire him immediately. The last name is only a necessity for manners." Sasuke calmly corrected.

Suigetsu rolled his eyes, knowing his boss would regret this.

"Fine, but he's coming tomorrow."

Little did Sasuke know the games and puzzles life had for him.


	2. Chapter 2: Warm Day

A/N: This is my coping mechanism chapter regarding the fucking chapter 700 of Naruto. Majority of SasuSaku shippers are disrespectful to other ships, which fucking pisses me off, cause there is so much more build up for SasuNaruSasu. Most NaruHina shippers celebrated respectfully, which makes me happy, cause I can totally accept Hinata and Naruto together, it was the ship I shipped before I turned thirteen and discovered beautiful fanfiction which morphed me into a SasuNaruSasu shipper. What pisses me off the most is the character development in the last chapter. All those years were thrown into the garbage. Sakura had grown into a mature, compassionate, independent girl. She wasn't as shallow anymore, she realized Naruto's worth and accepted him, and began to realize how deep Sasuke was in the dark. Then BAM. She's back to square one in the last chapter as some housewife. It just doesn't seem right. So...I will be writing this fanfic to be a soothing ointment from the latest chapter. I hope you will enjoy this series as it will be a form of therapy for me. There's a lot more I wanna say but I figure you guys just wanna read some classic fanfic.

**One last thing: SasuNaruSasu will ALWAYS be my OTP. I will die with it as my OTP because Naruto focuses on Friendship and Family. Thank you Kishimoto. You saved me. I was shunned just like Naruto for thirteen years by everyone at school and by my family.**

**But then you showed me Naruto, and I finally believed that I could have friends. So thank you so much for this beautiful story about bonds. **But then you showed me Naruto, and I finally believed that I could have friends. So thank you so much for this beautiful story about bonds and family. It was my life and still is.**  
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><p><strong>Although time has passed, I still remember our warm touch, through a dream. <em>I h<em>_ope you won't forget me._  
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><p>You would think by now he would be traveling around the world with his father Minato, but that wasn't the case, he'd been busy, taking care of his mother, Kushina, for most of his time, still working at home for his father. Funny story is, is that he was once a dirty, gritty, and loud orphan, only to be found by his real parents again. By then he was already fourteen. It was an emotional year to say the least. He was pissed, sad, heartbroken, and distrustful to them. Only because he didn't understand why they left him when I was only an infant.<p>

Apparently, someone had swept him from the hospital away from his parents, they searched everywhere. Deep down in his lonely heart, he knew they loved him, so he couldn't stay angry; they were his parents and from what he had heard, they had looked for him for all those fourteen years.  
>Imagining the pain it must have been to miss his first birthday, to miss his beginning years of my life; year after year, they begin to lose hope, scared that Naruto was alone. So he forgave them, because it must have been lonely and agonizing for them as it was for him.<p>

As it was meant to be, they were a family, no longer missing the other parts.

When he entered his room for the first time he was baffled with what he saw. It was filled with presents from all his previous birthdays and Christmases. That was the first time he had ever cried so hard in front of anyone.

To make his parents proud, he studied hard while looking after his mom. So here he was, on a plane to travel for business in his father's place. Kushina's condition had fully recovered, and told her son not to pass this opportunity. He wasn't given much of a choice by his mother.

he was riled up with so much energy. Especially since his close friend Gaara is also part of the company he was arriving to. Konoha.

"You seem happy." Gaara stated, glancing to me, calm eyes and calm voice, sitting with a straight back as he leaned back on my chair. Naruto stretched his arms and yawned, drowsiness beginning to take over him after so much lack of sleep. But his personality wouldn't allow for him to act like a tired business man.

"Well duh! I'm going to a business appointment arranged in approval of my Dad! I can't wait to show him that I'll do the best job to help the company of his! I won't let him down, I promised." Naruto grinned.

"It's gonna be awesome." And Naruto believed that. Gaara exhaled softly to turn his head to his childhood friend. They both knew each other when they were kids, though they were enemies, Naruto had changed the perspective of everything Gaara believed in.

It was for the better. And Gaara wouldn't forget that. Momentarily for a certain period of time, they were separated and had lost contact until Naruto had reached the blooming age of 18.  
>Where he begged his father to start working in his company so he could be like his father, a powerful business man, but still able to be as kind as he was. His mother said that was why she loved him, because no matter how things changed, the kindness in Minato never once wavered or morphed into something ugly when he became rich.<p>

"Naruto."

"Hmmm? What's up?"

Gaara took out his document and flipped to the first page, not really reading the letters.

"Mr. Uchiha is not the most accommodating man. Remember that he is not like your father. Mr. Uchiha can be ruthless." Gaara warned, though he already knew with Naruto's behavior, he would probably mouth off at Sasuke. The Uchiha would deserve it, but Gaara was there to make sure Naruto remembered what was at stake. But then again, maybe Gaara didn't need to worry.

"Alright, gotcha then."

The signal button for seat belts above them turned off, signaling that Naruto could finally take out his laptop. Because the flight was only an hour, there was paid wifi, so he logged on to his email. A red circle with a white exclamation point. A grin plastered on his face, his finger sliding to click the email. It was from Sasuke.

Gaara noticed the sudden shift in smile. "Sasuke I presume?" He asked, Yes, he knew about Sasuke, and he knew who Sasuke was, but it wasn't his business to tell Naruto. Gaara sensed that it was the kind of thing that Naruto would decide if he wanted to know who Sasuke was, that he was Sasuke, Uchiha.

Naruto nodded, tapping his foot in attempt to express his happiness. "Yep, he's telling me that he's finally working at his home city. Though he's a little worried since his partner afraid might be inexperienced." Chuckled Naruto, his fingers tapping joyfully away at the flat keyboard.

_"If only you knew...I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." _Thought Gaara, as he took out a pen and circled important information regarding a business trade he was working on. He wanted to tell Naruto, to save him the disappointment, but this sort of thing was for Naruto to experience.

"I'm sure things will turn out alright for him."

But Gaara wasn't assuming it would end badly, on the contrary, he imagined in the end, those two would be close. But this sort of thing didn't involve Gaara. For now, his job was to observe.

A silent half-hour passed by, Gaara busily reading the details of his files, while Naruto continued to read the email, snickering at the words that he read. Like a child, Naruto turned to Gaara, wanting to share the amusing email. But he stopped himself.

Gaara was busily working.

Feeling slightly ashamed and embarrassed, Naruto decided to work on some files as well. He finished up emailing Sasuke before he emailed a few companies his father was partners with to address concerns with stocks and time management to get certain things done. Although he did not look it, Naruto was a good thinker when it comes to strategy, not as good as Shikamaru though. No one could beat Shikamaru when it came to strategy.

The smooth paper radiated dry silk. Sighing to himself through the nose, he began to read about the project that he was to help with Mr. Uchiha.

The project itself was quite impressive, it was to develop glass lenses to improve human eyesight. Surgery would no longer be needed. The project would most likely take a stretch of time to perfect such technology. Even longer to begin possible treatment for blindness. But all within possible reach.

Naruto reveled in such an 'impossible' challenge.

"We're here." Gaara told, closing the folder and placed it back in his suitcase to re-adjust his tie before turning to Naruto with his cool, teal eyes.

Naruto closed his laptop eagerly. "Sweet! I can't wait for lunch!" sloppily, and hastily, he threw everything back in his suitcase, the organization inside of it a messy pile of paper. He clipped it closed, the metal lock felt cool against his heated finger tips.

His feet cantered himself excitingly out the airplane, Gaara calmly following behind him. The sun shone bright, shining warmth back into Naruto after having to freeze from the air-conditioning during the flight.

Today was going to be great.


End file.
